The Kingdom of Survival

Categorizing 21st-century society as corrupt to the core and controlled by corporate agendas, disaffected filmmaker M.A. Littler here crosses the USA (to a twang-grunge soundtrack) seeking alternatives from the words of anarchists, liberal scholars, and others who would seem to be guiding lights for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Usual suspect Noam Chomsky is on hand here, but others are likely to be less familiar to viewers, including Idaho's underground (literally) home-building pioneer/author Mike Oehler, dawn-of-the-1960s dissident Bob Meisenbach (singled out as the San Francisco protester who toppled HUAC), and rural California singer-songwriter Will “the Bull” Taylor. Although the interviewees attack differing targets, some common themes recur: namely, that the ideals of ‘60s flower children—especially related to environmental concerns—remain relevant; materialism should be shunned; and personal spirituality should be embraced. Alt-broadcaster Sasha Lilley notes that for-profit media not only supports the current two-party political structure for monetary reasons, but also actually believes the big lies. Perhaps the most astringent and memorable nonconformist is one who sadly succumbed to cancer in 2011, Virginia author Joe Bageant, a product of "ignorant" working-class-community values who nonetheless makes his home among the Appalachians who don't even read his books. According to Bageant, elitist liberals have failed his people just as much as the right-wingers who send them out to die in mines or on battlefields. A thought-provoking portrait of wide-ranging discontent in contemporary America, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)